Graham Walker, Commercial Content Editor

Chart-toppers Scouting For Girls will headline the second Wentworth Music Festival with a star-studded main stage line-up also including Atomic Kitten, Go West, Right Said Fred and Lucy Spraggan, it was revealed today..

South Yorkshire's Wentworth Woodhouse stately home on the border of Rotherham and Barnsley is to be the spectacular backdrop again for the new outdoor music and comedy festival which will be held next year on Saturday, June 16.

TICKETS: Early bird adult tickets, on sale now until November 30, are £35, will rise to £40 until December 31, then cost £45. Child tickets, for 12 year-olds and under, will remain at £10. Children aged three and under will be admitted free. Full details at www.wentworthmusicfestival.co.uk or buy at sivtickets.com.

It follows an inaugural line-up earlier this year which was headlined by Tony Christie, who tipped Wentworth to be ‘the next Glastonbury,’ with support from Heaven 17, T’Pau, Dodgy, and Lemar, who described Wentworth as “one of the best festival crowds I’ve ever played to!”

Next year's event will see the main stage moved to the far side of the field outside the stately home, so the full length of it will be on show during the day.

But once again the event will feature over 40 performers from the world of music, comedy and children’s entertainment across four stages, say organisers - radio presenter pals Toby Foster and Steve White, who are behind the ambitious plans.

Today they said they had decided to do it all over again after the first festival received overwhelming support from customers and industry insiders. They promised issues with the bar, which had resulted in long queues, have been resolved for next year.

VIDEO: Watch our exclusive video above with Toby Foster explaining the 2018 festival plans. He first came to prominence playing Les in Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights and runs Last Laugh Comedy Club nights and is the man behind Sheffield's hugely successful annual Comedy Festival.

"We had such an incredible response to the first festival this year that we decided we had to do this all over again. We got one or two things wrong last time but we learned a lot and next year will be bigger and better," said Toby, who revealed he will again be taking to the main stage, backing up Everly Pregnant Brothers frontman Shaun Doan in a new one-off project Big Shaun Pops Out, putting their own spin on classic pop songs.

"The line-up is already looking amazing with headliners Scouting For Girls, plus main stage names Atomic Kitten, Go West, Go West, Right Said Fred and South Yorkshire's own Lucy Spraggan. But there's so much more, including lots more comedy and we are taking over another field where the funfair will be."

Wentworth Music Festival 2018 headliners Scouting For Girls

“We want this festival to be something the village of Wentworth and surrounding areas is proud to be a part of every year.

“Both me and Steve live locally too so giving the area another great asset to shout about, along with the amazing scenery and attractions it already has, is paramount.”

Steve added; ‘When we started talking about this last year, there were a few residents who – very understandably – were concerned this kind of event would bring the wrong kind of atmosphere to the area. But I have to say, since the first event the locals have been incredible. The support we’ve had has been overwhelming and we really want to do Wentworth, and Rotherham, proud.

“We’ve both been involved in live events for years, it’s what we do for a living. But neither of us had actually organised an event of this scale before. With that in mind, we put together an amazing team and the overall day was a huge success and something we were both incredibly proud of."

Homecoming for South Yorkshire's own X Factor star Lucy Spraggan

The Last Laugh Comedy Stage will feature an award-winnning line up of comedians from radio and TV. Hosted by star of Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights Justin ‘Tiger Face’ Moorhouse, you can see the brilliant Jo Caulfield (Mock The Week, Have I Got News For You, Michael McIntyres Comedy Roadshow), Jonny Awsum (Britain’s Got Talent finalist 2017), Phil Nichol (Holy Flying Circus, Have I Got News For You) and Jeff Innocent (voted Best Live UK Comic 2016.)

More names will be added to the Last Laugh Comedy Stage line-up in the coming months.

Scouting For Girls are set to bring Wentworth 2018 to a close in style with huge anthemic tunes such as She’s So Lovely, Heartbeat, Famous and This Ain’t A Love Song.

Formed by childhood friends Roy Stride, Greg Churchouse, Peter Ellard and Lee Groin, they released their debut album in 2005, selling over one million copies.

Since then the band have gone on to sell millions of records globally as well as picking up an Ivor Novello nomination and numerous nominations at the BRIT’s. as one of the most popular British pop-rock bands in recent years.

Whole Again - back to their original line-up Atomic Kitten featuring Kerry Katona, Natasha Hamilton and Liz McClarnon

Atomic Kitten will perform back to their original line-up of Kerry Katona, Natasha Hamilton and Liz McClarnon. From 2001 the girls, put together by OMD frontman Andy McCluskey who also acted as the group’s main songwriter, notched up an impressive 17 hit singles and three number ones, including Eternal Flame and the song that became Atomic Kitten’s signature tune, Whole Again.

Also performing will be 80’s and 90’s sensations Go West. Fronted by guitarist Richard Drummie and singer Peter Cox, the band contributed to one of the most successful rom-com films of all time when their song The King Of Wishful Thinking was chosen to appear on the soundtrack to Pretty Woman, starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts. Other huge chart hits included Call Me, Faithful and We Close Our Eyes.

Sheffield X-Factor star Lucy Spraggan is arguably one of the best-remembered contestants not to win the show. The crowd and judges together were on their feet following Lucy’s first audition, performing her own track Last Night (Beer Fear), which went on to become her first UK hit. The heart-wrenching lyrics of Tea & Toast at Lucy’s second audition were enough to move judges Gary Barlow and Nicole Scherzinger to tears.

I'm Too Sexy stars Right Said Fred from 1991 achieved 10 hit singles in the UK alone, as well as selling millions of records around the world.

Held off the UK top spot only by Bryan Adams in 1991, I’m Too Sexy went on to become a huge number one in the US and was even borrowed by Taylor Swift when writing her most recent chart-topper Look What You Made Me Do. Fronted by brothers Richard and Fred Fairbrass, Right Said Fred are in huge demand on the festival circuit.

As well as the main music and comedy stages there will also be the Unsigned Stage, featuring incredible talent from across South Yorkshire and beyond, and a dedicated Kids Entertainment Village – guaranteeing that Wentworth Music Festival really does have something for the whole family to enjoy.

For the first time the event will also play host to a VIP village, complete with it’s own dedicated bar, luxury toilets, seating area and delicious hot buffet served late afternoon.

Wentworth Woodhouse, a Grade 1-listed building, which is twice the width of Buckingham Palace, situated in magnificent grounds on the Barnsley and Rotherham border, just five minutes from the M1 motorway.

It s the largest stately home in Europe, and it’s the first festival of it’s kind to be held there. Wentworth Woodhouse sits in 82 acres of gardens and woodland, surrounded by the even larger Fitzwilliam Estate.

The stunning house itself covers 2.5 acres – nearly one-and-a-half football pitches. It boasts five miles of corridors, is 150 times the size of your average home, with 1,000 windows, 365 rooms, stabling for 100 horses and was formerly owned by the aristocrat who is believed to have inspired Jane Austen’s Mr Darcy.

King George V and Queen Mary visited South Yorkshire and stayed at Wentworth Woodhouse for four days in July 1912.

It has been the setting for a number of film and television productions including ITV's recent Victoria, Mr Turner, a 2014 biographical drama about the life of painter J M W Turner, BBC mini-series Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrel, featured in the David Walliams’ BBC children’s drama Billionaire Boy and will soon be seen in new Gary Oldman Churchill biopic Darkest Hour - which was to include scenes filmed there by Sir John Hurt, just days before he died.

Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust bought the property, along with its outstanding collection of classical statues and surrounding grounds of 83 acres, for £7 million in March.

It was partly funded by a £3.5 million grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, with the rest of the cash coming from a range of institutional and private donors. In recent years the Government has also pledged £7.6 million for urgent repairs to crumbling parts of the property. A cash windfall of £750, 000 was announced this summer from the National Trust. It will be paid in £250,000 installments over the next three years and the trust has also pledged a team of extra staff over the next six years.

Guided tours are currently held in certain parts of the mansion but both trusts hope to use the money to open up more of the 365 rooms and allow visitors to have freer access to the property.

Hitmakers Go West

I'm Too Sexy stars Right Said Fred

Trending

SNOW ALERT EXTENDED: Potential for stranded vehicles and rural communities to be cut off